Creative

It’s been a loooong time since I posted an update. 2017 has been a year of contrasts. I’ve worked on a viral campaign for Cheetos that should be out soon, and I had the pleasure of working on a proof of concept short called Dead Air. Think of it as “Gremlins On A Plane!” I’ve also continued to move forward with my voice over career. I hope to be able to say more about that soon. For the last couple of months I’ve been waiting to hear about a future project that would be very exciting.

That got me thinking.

99% of my time is spent looking for the next job and promoting myself. Yet it’s a part of the job that rarely gets talked about.

As a self employed performer, I have to push myself to find the next job. I’m lucky, in that I have an agent, but even so you have to work hard to make connections. I’m at a point now where a majority of the work I get is because of word of mouth. I’ve done enough that my name is probably on some lists somewhere. However, I never take that for granted. Every job I apply for I assume I’m starting from scratch. That way I work harder to land it.

The more I put into finding work, the more I feel I have at least some control over the path my career takes. It’s much healthier than sitting at home and waiting for the phone to ring!

So if you want to be a puppeteer or an actor, don’t rely on others to do the work for you. Get out there and start connecting!

It’s been a while. What with Christmas, New Year and work commitments, I’ve not had much time to update you all.

So here we go!

Late in 2016 I flew to Holland to shoot a pilot for a potential new puppet TV show. As coordinator and principle puppeteer I had my work cut out for me, but it all went extremely well and everyone involved seemed happy and energized by the end product. It’s a crazy mix of music, adventure and comedy. I look forward to seeing the final product soon.

2016 ended on a high with the broadcast of The Furchester Christmas Special on BBC 1. The show was received extremely well, as have all the new episodes so far. Thank you all so much for watching.

A new batch of episodes started airing on CBEEBIES on February 6th and runs for a few weeks.

The other big bit of news is that the first 2 seasons of the show are now available on NETFLIX in the UK and USA.

This gives our friends in the US a better chance to see it than ever! It’s also broadcasting on THE SPROUT CHANNEL in America if you don’t have access to NETFLIX.

As always there are plenty of episodes still available on the BBC IPLAYER.

The last couple of weeks have been full of activity as we create content for the new Furchester attaction at CBEEBIES LAND/ALTON TOWERS. We’ve been shooting new footage for commercials and the attraction itself, as well as recording the audio for a brand new Furchester adventure. It’s all under wraps at the moment, but I’ll let you know more closer to the opening.

It’s the beginning of the year (just) and the rest of 2017 looks like it could be very exciting. As usual there is very little I can say about ANYTHING at the moment. I’m about to shoot a series of commercials for JAYWING, which will give me a chance to work with the ever brilliant KIM SCOPES again. I’ve worked with her in the past on NEWZOIDS and the music video CHUNKY for the band FORMAT:B.

The new episodes of The Furchester Hotel started airing last week on Cbeebies! And what a busy week it was. Visits from Big Bird and sledging penguins! However, one of my favorite moments was this little musical interlude from Furgus and Elmo. It’s all about the flights of fancy you can have on a top bunk! Having had a bunk bed as a child I can confirm that I spent many hours in the top bunk pretending I was in a space ship.

Just a quick update before things go quiet for a while. I’m off on holiday for a week, and then I’m traveling to Holland to shoot a pilot for a new kids TV show. I can’t say anything about it at the moment, but the puppetry team saw the puppets for the first time this week and we’re all very excited! It’s going to be a fascinating mix of puppetry and CGI. I’ll reveal more when I can.

We shot 51 new episodes this year at Media City UK, and I think it’s safe to say that we are all very proud of them. The first batch of new episodes is airing VERY soon. I’ll keep you posted. But the other good news is that The Furchester has been nominated for an award! We’ve been nominated in the “Best Animation And Puppetry” category at the Royal Television Society North West Awards.

Whoop!

We’re up against some great shows, so fingers crossed!

Hopefully the next time I post I’ll have more to tell you about the pilot in Holland, and I’ll have a Gerry Anderson’s Firestorm update!

Again it’s been a while. The Furchester shoot has ended after 60 days and over 600 hours of studio time. We’re all very proud of the 51 episodes we shot and can’t wait for them to be released into the wild! As far as I know the new episodes will start airing on CBEEBIES around October/November time. I’ll let you know more as and when the information becomes available.

I’m particularly proud of the special Christmas episode.

Since I’ve been back I’ve been catching up with over 4 months of paperwork (boo!) and finishing my tax return (double boo!). However, it’s not all been receipts and invoices. I’m prepping for a short pilot I’m shooting in Holland later next month. It’s still early days, lot’s of time looking at scripts and storyboards, figuring out how many puppeteers we’ll need and how certain shots can be accomplished with the minimum of fuss. Building the foundations for a successful shoot.

The trailer for the pilot minisode of Gerry Anderson’s Firestorm has been released to the Kickstarter backers and, it has to be said, the response has been phenomenal. If this is the reaction we get from the trailer I can’t wait for people to see the full minisode. The trailer will be released to the public soon. More information as and when.

And finally I’ve completed my performance reel! It’s taken a while to get to grips with it but here it is! It’s longer than my Sizzle Reel which was designed to give you an idea of the projects I’ve been involved with. This reel concentrates on a few key scenes that (hopefully) show off my performance skills. I hope you enjoy it! Please feel free to share.

It’s been a while since an update and I apologise. I’m knee deep in production on seasons 3 and 4 of The Furchester Hotel. This will keep me pretty much tied up until late August.

I’m writing a piece about the first block of shooting on the new series and I’ll post that up here as soon as it’s finished.

I’m on a dark week this week so took advantage of the time off to get some new headshots done. Normally I find this experience to be akin to pulling teeth, however, Nicholas Dawkes did a fabulous job. The atmosphere was calm, relaxed and he guided me through the whole process with confidence and humour.

I’ve not updated since I posted my new reel just before Christmas. Now that crimble is well and truly behind us, it’s time for an update!

Just before Christmas I shot a pilot TV show called “Captain Travel”. Now that it’s all edited and polished we just have to sit back and see if Disney are interested in turning it into a series. We shot the pilot on a shoestring budget in a few days. That being said, we were all very happy with the result and feel it clearly demonstrated the potential it has for a TV show.

So fingers crossed.

As usual there are a couple of other projects bubbling away in the background as I speak. However, one has leapt to the front.

As a kid I grew up on re-runs of Thunderbirds, Stingray, Joe 90, Captain Scarlet and Terrahawks. This is an absolute dream come true! The idea is to shoot a kick ass trailer to interest distributors in a potential TV series. No CGI! Just wonderful miniatures, models, practical FX and, most importantly, PUPPETS!

It’s been a busy couple of weeks here at Spooner Towers. As is the way with this rather odd business, I was all set to work on a job when it suddenly evaporated!

Hey ho.

It’s just the way it goes. So I took all that disappointment and channeled it into making a new showreel. I’ve been meaning to do it for a while anyway. Over a couple of weeks I looked through all the footage I have available to me and edited and edited and edited.

In the end, rather than have a reel that was trying to accomplish too much, I decided on creating a “sizzle” reel first. I’m not sure where I heard the term “sizzle” before but basically it’s a short reel designed to grab your attention and give you an idea of some of the projects I’ve been associated with.

I will be creating a longer “Performance Reel” next. This will consist of one, or maybe two full scenes and will give a better feel for my acting and voice skills.

Being a puppeteer meant that getting a professional to make this reel was out of the question, WAY too expensive! So I pulled my socks up and did it myself. I rather proud of the end result.

So here it is!

The ANDREW JAMES SPOONER “Sizzle” reel!

I hope you enjoy it.

More to the point, I hope you hire me!

A

PS. Oh, and I just landed the lead puppet character in a pilot for Disney. That’s all I can say though! When I’m free to speak about it I’ll bring you up to speed.

I’d never done a long form interview like this so was quite anxious about it to say the least. But the guys were great and I think it went really well. It’s episode 2 of season 2, entitled simply “Muppet”.